Opening Wounds
by Squeeze-the-Fish
Summary: "Not being defenseless wasn't the same as being able to make it out alive." A collection of GarrusxShepard oneshots. Not in any particular order. Not updated regularly.
1. Opening Wounds

_Edit: Cleaned this up a bit, added more where I thought it needed it. Hopefully it reads better._

* * *

They sat across from each other in the med bay, on two separate exam tables. Dr. Chakwas had just finished applying the bandages around Shepard's midsection and had left to find more gauze for Garrus despite his protests that he didn't need them.

The blue blood seeping from a particularly nasty-looking wound in his side didn't help his case, but for the moment, they were alone.

"Garrus, you should have allowed Dr. Chakwas to bandage that up. It looks like you're trying to paint the med bay blue."

He shrugged, and winced when he did, "Internal takes priority over external, Shepard."

"Garrus, I can't…you need to be more careful," she ended rather lamely and thought back on the mission that had almost taken them both out.

_They'd walked into an ambush, a rocket being launched at them almost as soon as they'd stepped through the door. She'd only barely registered the significance of the oncoming ball of light when Garrus had shoved them both behind a nearby crate, nearly crushing her with his weight. _

_The rat-tat-tat of enemy fire flew over their heads as Shepard reloaded her gun throwing a hurried "thanks," in his direction before leaning over the crate and engaging the enemy. _

…_she didn't notice the metal shard protruding from his side… _

…_or the blood seeping from it. _

There wasn't time_, she told herself, _they were fighting for their lives_. _

_In the end, they'd both ended up in the medbay where a severe-looking Chakwas worked to patch them up. She'd ended up with a couple fractured ribs and a few nasty bruises across her abdomen. It wasn't until then the doctor made Garrus take his armor off that Shepard realized the extent of his injuries. _

"No more playing turian-shield," she said moodily.

He scoffed, "Yeah, Shepard. Whatever you say."

"That's an order!" she snapped, surprising both of them.

He shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Well, it's one I'm not going to follow. You die Shepard, and this whole thing falls apart and everyone knows it."

"That's not true," she whispered feebly, looking down at the ground. She needed this team, the _whole_ team. She'd been with the Alliance for a long time, was one of their most decorated soldiers, but it wasn't until now that she thought she understood what it meant to lead.

A few months ago, she would have said the mission took priority no matter who had to die to see it through. She had a reputation for getting shit done. It wasn't that the means had always justified the ends- it was that the means just didn't matter.

Now…now she just felt confused. These people, they meant something to her. They were no longer among the expendables, they were…

She felt a gloved hand nudge her chin up.

"Look Shepard, if it'll make you feel better, I'll try to be more careful," he said awkwardly. Clearly, her silence was making him uncomfortable.

She scoffed and a small smile played across her lips. "That's all I can ask."

He seemed to relax, and slowly leaned back (wincing the entire way) so that his back rested against the wall. With a long sigh, he closed his eyes and they once again settled into silence.

She closed her eyes too- _damn, she was exhausted _–and flirted with idea of sleep when she heard a quiet wheezing and forced her eyes back open.

"Garrus?"

His face was contorted- his features twisted in obvious pain. His breaths were haggard, his chest expanding in uneven, short, spurts. She could see the wicked curve of his teeth though his open mouth, the wheezing sound escaping between them.

"You okay?"

It was a stupid question, the guy was bleeding everywhere. Even so, he grit his teeth, but didn't open his eyes. "Never better," he spat out and immediately started coughing up dark blue blood.

"_Shit!" _Shepard jumped up from exam table, felt a blinding pain shoot up her left side, and stumbled to him.

"Garrus!" she shouted again grabbing his shoulder with one hand to steady herself and gripping her side with her other.

"Damn it, Shepard," he coughed, drops of blue coloring her bandages, "Sit down or you'll open that wound back up!"

_Too late_. She thought, feeling a thick, warming sensation pooling at her side and soaking the gauze there.

She pushed away from him and started ripping open every cabinet door searching for…_something_. It didn't matter that she didn't know anything useful about turian physiology, didn't know what might help. _Was it his actual wound? Was it blood loss? Was it shock?_ She had no idea.

_Where the _fuck_ was Chakwas?_

She slammed a drawer too hard and it bounced back, shooting out, and hitting her injured side. With a grunt she slid to her knees, eyes watering.

Garrus, for his part, seemed caught between coughing up and _laughing up_ his insides. It was all she could do to flip him the bird as she sank further to the ground and into the fetal position, her head settling into a puddle of blue blood at the turian's feet.

His laughter (and coughing) only intensified and she couldn't help it when the first snort escaped her lips. She tried to ignore the giddiness she felt building in the pit of stomach, knowing it would hurt like hell and that if she started, it was unlikely she'd be able to stop…

…and this really wasn't all that funny anyway.

A few moments later, Dr. Chakwas reentered the room, fresh gauze in hand and nearly dropped it. One of her patients- _her commander_- was on the floor, soaking up blue blood, hands gripping her newly opened wound, laughing hysterically, while the other -whose blood was dribbling down his face and out his side- laughed right along with her.

She sprang to action immediately, going to a drawer that _wasn't _spilled on the floor -_just what the hell had happened in here?-_ and grabbed two prefilled syringes, one with a greyish liquid, the other with bright blue, and injected the hysterical pair.

She wiped her forehead, alarmed and confused, as the noise died down and she waited for the sedative to take full effect.


	2. Beginning Anew

It felt strange, falling back into action like this, and even stranger to be doing it alongside two agents brought forth from an alliance founded solely out of necessity-

-_and an incredible amout of cybernetics and creds_, she reminded herself. She still hadn't decided if that meant she was indebted to Cerberus and the Illusive Man or not.

_And now is not the time to try to sort that out, _a bullet whizzing by her head and zinging into her shields warned her.

She was pretty sure that shot had come from Archangel's direction.

They'd been there for a better part of an hour, he'd _had_ to have noticed that they were shooting at the _other guys-_

-i.e. _not him_.

Which meant he was simply being an _asshole_. Which really kind of _pissed her off-_ enough that she momentarily thought of abandoning this gone-to-shit mission and focusing on the next recruit.

"Not an option, Commander," Jacob answered looking slightly disturbed, "Not sure we'll make it outta' here alive even _with_ his help."

Okay, so desertion was out and he had a point. There were mercs everywhere and they were all low on heat sinks. Luckily, her entire team had at least some biotic ability, including herself (and hadn't _that_ been a surprise after waking), so even if it came down to it, they weren't defenseless. But not being defenseless wasn't the same as being able to make it out alive.

She glanced around the corner of the piece of equipment she'd been using as cover and was met by the ugly face of a vorcha with the barrel of its gun pointed right at her. She spat out a curse and brought her gun up knowing she wouldn't make it in time and her shields wouldn't protect her from such a close range. With all the defiance she could muster, she looked her enemy right in the eye, prepared to die (again) when his head ruptured, bits and pieces of it suddenly coating her armor. Jacob was beside her in an instant, looking entirely too pleased.

"Gotta' say this for him- the guy's got good timing." He flashed an impossibly white smile and raised his gun, dropping another vorcha before he was off again.

"Yeah, yeah," she grumbled. It wasn't as if she ungrateful- death by random vorcha wouldn't have been at the top of her list of ways to die a second time- but she got the sense there was some smugness behind the shot. Like whoever this guy was, was patting himself on the back.

_All that from a single shot, eh? You alright Shepard? _A voice that sounded suspiciously turian asked her. She frowned, feeling the familiar ache that accompanied thoughts of her old team- her old life. It was time to get out of this pisshole.

Once she'd set her mind to it, getting to Archangel had not really been that difficult. The mercs were well trained, but as soon as the orders started to fly, the mercs started to die and their progress was swift.

They found the area where Archangel had been holed up and with guns raised, they entered. He was turned away from them, sniper rifle in hand, lining up another shot.

"Archangel?" her voice was louder than she intended and didn't quite disguise the annoyance she felt.

He held up his hand, signaling for them to wait. She took a step to the right to get a better look just in time to watch another merc fall. She quirked an eyebrow, determined not to be impressed.

Using his rifle to support most of his weight, he finally got up and walked toward her, his gait sluggish, heavy with fatigue. It was easy to see he was running on empty and there were still too many mercs for him to handle alone.

She scoffed, _tactical genius, _they'd said.

Before she could carry that line of thought any further, he took off his helmet.

For one breathless moment her world was shattered with the impossibility of what she was seeing_. It just…it couldn't be. She must still be dead or lying back on Miranda's table in the lab, coming down from drug-induced trip. That had to be it. He was-_

"Shepard,"

-_exhausted, nearly to the point of collapsing and he was-_

"I thought you were dead."

_-here._


End file.
